Some Oak Park residents back Ike expansion

October 01, 2013|By Wes Venteicher, Chicago Tribune reporter

The Oak Park Village Board talked about an Eisenhower Expressway expansion project Monday with a crowd of about 110 people at Washington Irving Elementary School. (Patrick Rollens, Village of Oak Park, Handout)

Members of the Oak Park Village Board, which has publicly opposed expansion of the Eisenhower Expressway, heard new expressions of caution from residents this week.

"Oak Park has been standing alone against (the Illinois Department of Transportation)," said South Elmwood Avenue resident Chris Donovan, one of several project supporters who spoke at a Monday night meeting.

The Illinois Department of Transportation is in the planning stage of a multiyear project to renovate and expand a 13-mile stretch of expressway between Racine Avenue and Mannheim Road, where about 2,500 crashes occur per year, said Pete Harmet, the department's programming bureau chief. Improving the road, which was built in 1962, is expected to cost more than $1 billion, Harmet said.

About 110 village residents attended a meeting the Village Board held in the Irving Elementary School auditorium Monday night. Trustee Ray Johnson said the board heard a wider range of opinions — from opposition to support of the expansion — than it has heard before.

The heart of the expansion proposal involves adding another lane for vehicle traffic, according to project planning documents. It could be a carpool lane, a toll lane or some combination of both. Documents also show a new ramp that would be added at a second-story level to the edges of the expressway at the Austin and Harlem exits, along with expanded pedestrian access to the Blue Line.

Residents who live near the expressway raised some concern about increased traffic.

"For me it means a lot," said Garfield Street resident Aurora Pineda. "As it is I already see a lot of traffic."

The Illinois Department of Transportation has projected the population of the project area will grow from a 2010 figure of about 313,000 people to about 330,000 people in 2040. Traffic on the expressway is expected to increase by about 3 percent in that time, according to a department planning document.

Emily Dougherty, of Clarence Avenue, said she would like to see Oak Park be more cooperative on the project. Dougherty said her family lives in Oak Park because it is convenient to get other places — by car — and that the expansion would only help that.

Some residents advocated for solutions that would expand ridership on the Blue Line instead of encouraging driving.

"To not have any of these … options improve ridership is a great flaw," said Kenilworth Avenue resident David Muehring.

A CTA official at the meeting said the transit agency is contemplating improvements to its existing line, but does not foresee having money for expansion.

The expressway project is not yet funded, but calls for extending the reach of public transit — whether by Blue Line or bus — up to 31/2 miles to the west, Harmet said.

Rick Kuner, who has studied the Eisenhower expansion for the group Citizens for Appropriate Transportation, raised concerns that the project would only marginally reduce the number of hours the expressway is congested — from about 17 hours per day now to as low as 16.25 hours in the year 2040. Kuner questioned whether that decrease is worth the project's cost.

Harmet emphasized that the bulk of the expressway project's cost will go toward rebuilding the existing road and replacing 50-year-old infrastructure such as bridges.

"The facility's in need of complete replacement," Harmet said.

Additionally, the expressway's outdated design is dangerous in some places — particularly along the left exit ramps at Harlem and Austin avenues, he said. The highest crash rate in the 13-mile stretch is in the westbound lanes near the Austin exit, he said.

Harmet also said hours of congestion is only one way of measuring the project's impact on traffic. He cited other department projections showing 40,000 more people per day could pass through the corridor — some on public transportation or in carpool vehicles — and 28,000 hours per day of travel time would be saved.

The current stage of the project started in 2009. Construction is not expected to start until at least 2016, Harmet said. Project leaders expect to finish the planning stage in late 2014, he said.

The Illinois Department of Transportation is hosting public-comment gathering sessions Oct. 7 and 8 in Chicago and in Forest Park. Comments made at those sessions will be entered into the project's record. Monday's comments were not.